In order to remove an impurity component harmful to a fuel cell, such as a sulfur compound (for example, SO2 or H2S) or a nitrogen oxide (NOx), from air supplied as an oxidizer gas to an air electrode of the fuel cell, there is employed a chemical filter placed on a supply path of the oxidizer gas to the fuel cell. The chemical filter includes activated carbon and the like, and adsorbs the impurity component onto the chemical filter to remove the impurity component.
For determination of a lifetime of the chemical filter, for example, there is employed a filter lifetime determination system for the fuel cell, involving: obtaining a quantity of an adsorbed impurity per unit time, which is adsorbed onto the chemical filter, based on information of a self-vehicle under a running environment, including a standard impurity concentration at a running position of the self-vehicle and an average velocity of the self-vehicle; integrating the obtained quantity of the adsorbed impurity per unit time over a running time to obtain a total quantity of the impurity adsorbed onto the chemical filter; determining whether or not the total quantity of the adsorbed impurity exceeds a predetermined value; and judging that the chemical filter is at the end of its lifetime when the total quantity of the adsorbed impurity exceeds the predetermined value (for example, Patent Document 1).    Patent Document 1: JP 2004-152669 A    Patent Document 2: JP 2003-132928 A    Patent Document 3: JP 11-226341 A